I have just tweeted for someone to explain to me what a ‘cozy mystery’ actually is. A tall order I know in 140 characters. Anyway, a tweeter sent me a link to Wikipedia. I know this may not be the definitive answer but it is certainly a start.

I questioned it because I was wondering if ‘Murder Now and Then’ would come under this category, so let me break this down.

Sex and violence are downplayed or treated humourously ~ certainly there are no explicit sex scenes and the violence is not graphic to the extreme

The crime and detection takes place in a small and intimate community ~ in Murder, Now and Then, this is certainly true on the whole and the book has been likened to Midsommer Murders ~ say no more!

The detectives are nearly always amateurs ~ No, in Murder Now and Then the detection is undertaken by police officer, although they do not always work ‘by the book’

The book revolves around the amateur detective’s hobby ~ not true and yet there is an underlying theme of an interest in family history which binds the characters together

The murderers are not psychopaths or serial killers and are usually known in the community ~ true

There is little or no profanity ~ true

Emphasis is on puzzle solving and suspense ~ true

There is a great deal of humour ~ not true

The verdict ~ six out of nine are true. I believe that readers who love cozy mysteries will enjoy Murder Now and Theneven though it does not quite fit into the category.

With 24 good or excellent reviews so far, why don’t you give it a try and let me know what you think?

You cannot imagine how wonderful it is to be writing fairly regularly again. I hesitated over the word ‘wonderful.’ Should I have said fulfilling, satisfying, rewarding ~ even therapeutic or a HUGE RELIEF! After eighteen months abstention (predominantly to settle into our new life here in Fife) I am over half way through writing my next novel now and the ideas are flowing. I have made a few false starts over these months but the seeds of this book have laid dormant, waiting for the right conditions to germinate and grow.

Writing my current book, however, is a totally different experience to all the novels I’ve completed in the past where I have involved friends, family and experts in various fields of history from the outset. For my second novel ‘Ancasta’ I even had a fishing lesson!

Why is this different? Because I have shared my ideas with no one as yet. It is a secret burning within and I’m so excited about it. It is like an unborn child.

What I can say is that it is not part of my historical fiction series, which will disappoint many of my readers I know. It is also not memoir but it is a mystery ~ in fact several mysteries. The location? I’m not ready to share that as yet either.

When the time comes I am going to try to find five beta readers, but I don’t think I want these to be friends or family, as I have done in the past. I would love them to be discerning readers and writers.

If you’d like to offer to be a beta reader then please drop me an email diana@dianamaryjackson.co.uk. You would be one of the first people I’d share my secret with. Would you like me to reciprocate too or if you are a reader, would you like a signed copy when it is published? Just let me know.